The Doge’s Palace is one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice and a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic. It stands in the monumental area of Piazza San Marco between the little square and the pier of Palazzo Ducale, beside the San Marco Basilica. Distinguished by a style inspired by Byzantine and Oriental architecture, its beauty is based on an astute aesthetic and physical paradox, due to the fact that the heavy bulk of the main body is supported by apparently slender inlaid columns.